1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a recording apparatus having a so-called "editing function" to extract or erase a specified portion of either a document image or an image which is displayed in a display device, thereby to form an image.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In a copying machine or the like according to the prior art, there has been known a method of extracting or erasing a portion of a document image thereby to record an image. As one method of performing such editing operation, there is a method in which a document is irradiated with a light source and in which a liquid crystal or a shutter is arranged in the optical path of the reflected beam so that the pattern of an electrostatic latent image formed on a photosensitive member may be changed by either varying the optical transmission of the liquid crystal or controlling the aperture of the shutter. As another method, there is also known an overlay method in which a transparent plastic film bearing information to be recorded is overlaid upon a document image so that both may be recorded in a superposed manner. Of the former methods, the one using the liquid crystal is complicated in its wiring or its drive of control electrodes, whereas the other using the mechanical shutter is complicated in its mechanism. On the other hand, the overlay method has to resort to the provision of the transparent plastics and to be taken care in storage against blotting or damage.